The Zehlendorf fire station is obviously popular with thieves Photo: Timo Beurich
By Axel Lier
The perpetrators only struck the last time in June, and now the fire station in Zehlendorf has been hit again! While the rescuers slept upstairs, burglars stole valuable spreaders from fire engines downstairs in the hall.
When firefighters got into the hall between 2 and 3 a.m., they discovered that the equipment was missing: two spreaders, two cylinders, two spare batteries. The associated tension belts were cut, so that a fire engine had to be taken out of service. It is unclear how the thieves got into the hall. Police were alerted at around 3:10 a.m. and arrived around 6 a.m.
The battery-powered special tools, which often cost more than 10,000 euros, can be used to break open car doors that are stuck or thick metal struts to be cut through. The Dresden jewel thieves opened the window bars of the Green Vault in autumn 2019. In October 2018, several robbers used a spreader to break open a money transporter near Berlin’s Alexanderplatz. Bank safe deposit boxes and ATMs were also violently cracked with it.
The last burglary with Spreizer-Klau happened in Zehlendorf in June: The crew of an ambulance left the station during the night and noticed a suspicious person. The firefighters waited until the gate was closed again. But accomplices were probably already in the vehicle hall by then. They stole the hydraulic spreaders from two fire engines and fled.
► Drastic measures are to be taken to prevent burglaries in the police station in the future. A fire brigade spokeswoman: “Our gate closing times have now been changed from two minutes to 20 seconds.” A replacement is available for the decommissioned fire engine.
The police union (GdP) has long been demanding that all stations be equipped with modern alarm, video and security technology. According to spokesman Benjamin Jendro, the Berlin fire brigade should not be the material storehouse for organized crime.